MainEconomyTrump’s Trade Peace with Europe has Nostalgia of Obama’s Path

Trump’s Trade Peace with Europe has Nostalgia of Obama’s Path

30 July, 2018

Zero industrial goods tariffsTrump and Juncker said the U.S. -EU talks would seek to eliminate tariffs, trade barriers and subsidies for non-automotive industrial goods, and cut barriers to transatlantic trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and medical products.

Ross said his department will continue its investigation into possible tariffs on imports of auto and auto parts and submit a report to Trump sometime next month.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the truce will "immediately resolve" tariffs and the European Union retaliation at the center of the costly trade row.

But after the talks, Trump's threat to impose tariffs on European cars was pushed aside and the EU said it would buy more United States liquefied natural gas and soybeans.

Moreover, even before Wednesday's agreement, the European Union was likely to buy more USA soybeans. During a recent European trip, Mr Trump referred to the EU as a "foe" over "what they do to us in trade".

After meeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House on Wednesday, Trump agreed to refrain from imposing vehicle tariffs while the European Union and the United States start talks on cutting other trade barriers.

Russia's Gazprom PJSC, which provides more than a third of Europe's natural gas through pipelines from vast and cheap-to-operate Siberian fields, has repeatedly said US supplies will just be "drops". And they would continue to hit USA trading partners like Canada, Mexico and Japan even if the US and the European Union cut a deal.

He has slapped taxes on imported steel and aluminum, saying they pose a threat to US national security.

Juncker told Trump during a meeting in the Oval Office that the trade talks are important. But Trump later reversed course and said the United States would impose a 25% tariff on $50 billion of Chinese exports.

He said officials from both sides would immediately focus on steel and aluminum tariffs first "so that there can be no tariffs in either direction", and he expected that issue to be resolved "very quickly". The company said it now sees fewer SUV sales and higher costs at its Mercedes-Benz Cars division than previously expected as a result of the tariffs, and "this effect can not be fully compensated by the reallocation of vehicles to other markets". General Motors had slashed its outlook, and shares of Ford Motor Co. and auto parts companies had fallen. Rabobank International Ltd. predicted in June that the USA may overtake Brazil as the biggest soybean exporter to the EU.

Mary Lovely, a Syracuse University economist who studies trade, said, "The Chinese are not going to be buying our soybeans, so nearly by musical chairs our soybeans are going to Europe".

"Longer talks would be a success because they would keep Trump from raising auto tariffs; at the same time, they pose the risk of the USA president losing his patience at some point", said Carsten Nickel, a research director at Teneo Intelligence. Not to mention the $34 billion in Chinese goods the administration has so far hit with tariffs in yet another dispute over the predatory practices China deploys in a push to challenge US high-tech dominance.

A viral video of an activist on board a plane in Sweden stopping the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker has cast a spotlight on Europe's deepening divisions over immigration, human rights experts said. "Hope they do it, we are ready - but they won't!" he tweeted.

Mnuchin said there were no new developments on the dispute with China, which has been the target of most of Trump's trade policies.

The Center for Automotive Research last week estimated that the potential import taxes of 20 percent to 25 percent on autos and auto parts would raise the price of an average vehicle by $4,400.

German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a conservative, hailed the talks as a "breakthrough" that could avoid a trade war and save millions of jobs.

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